Parents Sue City Over Charges After Son's Molestation Arrest
Published: Oct 27, 2005
TAMPA - -- Four years ago, acting on a tip, Tampa police detectives executed a search warrant at a suspected child molester's home.
When they arrived, they found the 22-year-old molesting a 14-year-old boy.
Police arrested Ronald Beavers Jr.
Then they arrested his mother, charging her with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Two days later, police charged Deborah Beavers again, this time with acting as an accessory. They also charged Ronald Beavers Sr. as an accessory. Police contended the parents knew what their son had been doing.
Eventually, charges against the parents were dropped.
On Tuesday, the parents filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough County Circuit Court against the city and the two detectives who arrested them.
In the suit, the Beaverses say the detectives had no evidence that they knew their son was engaged in illegal activities. Even if the parents did know, Florida law protects a parent from charges of accessory after the fact when his or her child is a suspect.
Four days before the Beaverses' lawsuit was filed, they were sued in the same court -- by two people who say Beavers Jr. molested them and that his parents knew about it.
On Oct. 14, 2001, police arrested a juvenile on a burglary charge. The boy told police Beavers Jr. molested him.
Ten days later, Detectives John Yaratch and Robert Sheehan executed the warrant on the Beaverses' Adams Street home.
Beavers Jr. eventually entered a plea deal with prosecutors and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. Charges against his parents were dropped within three months of their arrest.
Police "failed to adequately investigate," said Michael Maddux, the Beaverses' attorney. "They jumped the gun."
Florida law says parents can be charged as accessories after the fact only if they assist a child who is charged with child abuse, child neglect, aggravated manslaughter of a child or murder of a child. Lewd and lascivious battery is not listed among the charges.
In the lawsuit, the Beaverses seek damages for negligence, false arrest, malicious prosecution and federal claims that their constitutional rights were violated.
Yaratch and Sheehan have retired. Efforts to reach them were unsuccessful. Joe Durkin, a spokesman for the Tampa Police Department, said he could not comment on an ongoing lawsuit.
In the other lawsuit, filed Friday, the plaintiffs are identified only by their initials.
According to the suit, "KY" and "RY" were minors in 2001.
From 1998 until Beavers Jr. was arrested in 2001, he lured the minors to his home using video games, computers, the Internet, money and illegal drugs, the lawsuit states. He also gave them rides to and from school.
The Beaverses knew their son was a sexual predator, knew he was luring young boys to their home and knew he was providing them with illegal drugs, the lawsuit states. They allowed their son to spend the night with underage boys knowing he was likely to molest them, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims the Beaverses did nothing to warn the boys and did nothing to stop their son.
Maddux said Wednesday that he had just heard about the lawsuit filed against the Beaverses and could not comment.
Both lawsuits seek unspecified monetary damages.
